Chapter 1
There I was, once more, alone in the girls' dormitory at Hogwarts. Being quiet did not have much advantages. My older sister Bellatrix was the overly confident, loud one. Every Slytherin admired her, and even some from other houses. Those who didn't like Bellatrix, were the ones who feared her. Not that they'd tell her they didn't like her. She'd push everyone around and eventually she'd get her own way. I always thought this was rather nasty and rude of her, but another side to me wished that I could be like that. There was no doubt about it that Bellatrix is probably off snogging Rodolphus Lestrange at that very moment, either that or she was bullying some poor first year.
Narcissa, my younger sister, was a bit quieter than Bellatrix, though she was not as quiet as I was. She was popular and she had her little clique of giggling girls. Though she was rather snobby, something she had in common with our dear mother. She was probably outside by the lake that moment, giggling with that Rita Skeeter about who was going out with who back then.
And then there was me, Andromeda Black. The quiet, less-popular Black sister. The one who would rather relax with a good book than be off playing tonsil tennis with some good-looking Slytherin boy. Yes, that was me, a nice Slytherin. It was a wonder I got into Slytherin in the first place. That hat was thinking about putting me in Hufflepuff. Bellatrix would have been laughing for days and Mother would have been furious.
I didn't have much friends at Hogwarts, really. Though I was quite friendly with a nice Gryffindor boy called Ted Tonks, well okay, we were more than friendly. We were going out, secretly of course. I remember thinking if my family knew I was going out with a Mud - I mean Muggle Born, then my head would have been hanging from the walls with those house elves.
Bellatrix and Narcissa had been looking at me oddly when I decided to go off to the "Library" by my self, and I insisted no one came with me. Of course, I did not go to the Library. I met with Ted on these occasions. I think Bella and Cissy were suspicious of me. I'm surprised it took so long for them to start following me.
Yes, unfortunately, after a few months of wandering off by my self, Bella and Cissy twigged that I must have been up to something. They started following me to the Room of Requirment, though they couldn't get in. I made sure of that. But it didn't stop them asking odd questions such as "What were you doing in there?" or "Who were you with?" or in Narcissa's case, "I can't wait to tell Rita about this!"
I could have strangled the both of them because of how nosy they were, they just couldn't keep out of their sister's business, could they? Back then I tried to convince my self that they were just worried for me. They were my sisters, they loved me and they were just worried. Ha, how idiotic of me to think that. They just wanted a reason to run off to Mother and Father to find a reason to get me into trouble. They were always like that. "Perfect Little Andromeda" is what they called me.
But that's not where the real trouble started. Oh no, the real trouble started on the last day of my sixth year at Hogwarts, Bellatrix's final day. Narcissa had been crying her eyes out about how she wouldn't see her favourite sister all year while she was at Hogwarts, this didn't bother me, Narcissa and Bellatrix were always going on about how they were better than I was, but I didn't care. I had more important things on my mind. That morning I got up and started throwing up, just as I had done for the past week. I had been to the hospital wing for a potion, but it cured nothing.
One thought haunted my mind, what if I was pregnant? It was possible. Ted and I had figured that we were old enough and had decided to go for it. There was only one thing I could do. I had to take the test. And so I read some books in the library about pregnancy, found a charm which would tell me whether I was pregnant or not and ran off to the girls' bathroom to do the test.
When the results came out, my stomach gave an uncomfortable jolt, I was pregnant. At the age of sixteen. I would be the mother of a half-blood child.
That summer I would have to tell my parents and that is when all hell would break loose.